KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) recommends that the Health Ministry formulates a set of guidelines for doctors to ensure that medical cases with apparent criminal elements are duly reported to the police.

MMA president Dr Ravindran Naidu said this would prevent cases such as the one involving Malaysian National Defence University naval cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain, whose private clinic doctor failed to make a police report over upon treating him.

Zulfarhan, a victim of severe bullying, died of his injuries shortly after.

Ravindran also expressed hope that Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam and his officials would listen to the doctor’s side of the story on the case.

“What the doctor saw at the time of the patient’s visit might have been very different from what was seen at the post-mortem.

“If the injuries were consistent with the history given by the victim, the doctor might have had no suspicion at all that any unlawful act had been committed,” he said in a statement today.

Dr Subramaniam had said that the doctor who treated 21-year-old Zulfarhan will be summoned by the Health Ministry to explain the matter.

It was reported that after receiving treatment for his injuries on May 27, the doctor had allowed Zulfarhan to go home, asking him to return for further treatment on May 31 – but he failed to turn up.

Many have faulted the doctor for failing to raise the red flag and informing the police about the case.

Zulfarhan was found unresponsive in a condominium unit in Bangi and was rushed in an ambulance to the Serdang Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on June 1.